Category: Podcast

There are few games server provider companies that can claim to have risen so high in such a short time. Started from a single system in May 2009, End of Reality LLC has become a leader in the North America market. Bucking conventions, EOR has chosen the path of renting servers, relying on high efficiency and stability of young intel platforms to provide the ever elusive 100% up time. With equal focus in the competitive environment as the communities Robby Hicks combines the latest hardware with the latest software and bundles it all together with a knowledgeable staff.

It’s little surprising that EA have granted EOR the Trusted Server Provider status. For many this would be cause enough for celebration. Indeed glancing at their website you’ll see plenty of Battlefield 3 promotional banners. For Robby and his team though, getting everything ready for one event isn’t enough of a challenge. Hence their rather bold move into the European market. Within the next 24hrs EOReality is set to go live in London, England.

For this episode we return to the source. Source Mod, to be exact. I’m joined by PubComp‘s Parable and Vincenator. The latter being the man behind the project’s SourceMod coding.

Like many of the team Vincenator has had his fill of TF2Lobby. His initial enthusiasm for Floor_Master’s work was curbed when he found he had arrived too late to contribute. Believing TF2Lobby to have fallen into a state of unrealised potential he’s keen not to let PubComp fall into the same traps. He has pounced on this open project and built the entire SM codebase on which PubComp relies. Keeping to the open nature his code may be edited in the future. I’d be surprised if this is the last we hear from him on WIP.

For his part Parable speaks of the messaging system that will link the game servers to the website database. He also makes it clear that the end of September release date is still very much on.

As the Multiplay iSeries LAN i43 draws to a close we catch up with Comedian to find out if it all went as smoothly as he expected. For Comedian and all the crew from VanillaTV.org this had been a harrowing few days. A continuous stream of casting on Friday and Saturday lead on to the dramatic final match on Sunday morning. The sound and computing rigs VanillaTV used were a hodge-podge of tried and tested mixed with borrowed and even gaffer-taped equipment. Possibly the most successful idea Comedian brought to this event was the Cheerfuls. The premise was to simply hand out card and marker pens then ask the crowd to draw a images to cheer their teams on. On the day this unexpected opportunity for crowd participation brought out the cheeky and creative streak in the audience and made the Team Fortress 2 final one of the most fun experiences of the weekend.

In the build up to i43 I sit down with Comedian, previoulsy of TF2TV, now of VanillaTV.

In the last few weeks there has been a staff shuffle; Shox is going to pass his role as ‘right-hand-man’ over to the floor manager, Leftism. Comedian has faught to maintain the Open Mic project, he explains the importance of the constant hunt for new talent and this sentiment is reflected too in VTF2’s open call for writers.

Most importantly this week sees the preparations for Multiplay’s i43, the biggest eSport gathering and LAN party in the UK. VanillaTV are going to be bringing the fource of four men and hope to introduce Cheerfuls, previously seen in StartCraft audiences and a unique promo item.